The provision of goods (e.g. food and clothing) and services (e.g. insurance, medical services and banking) to today's consumers are manifested through a variety of channels and in a variety of different outlets including those of both retailers and service providers. A number of large scale retailers have attempted to branch out from solely offering goods to consumers and have expanded to offer services that are more traditionally provided by service providers. However, this latter strategy can be time consuming, costly and legally taxing for retailers because the sale of many of the services to consumers are subject to state legislation.
The provision of services to consumers usually requires large sums of marketing expenses but with unknown returns. It would thus be highly advantageous to have a system or method for targeting marketing resources to interested customers. It would also be highly desirable if such a system or method provided a mechanism for generating and tracking sales leads.
As is well known in the art, many retailers keep track of retail customers' buying habits through loyalty card programs that incorporate: the capture and storage of the individual name and contact details for each loyalty card member (LCM); the provision to each LCM of a unique alpha-numeric loyalty member identifier which may be recorded on a loyalty card provided to the LCM; and the retention of a retailer's database in which the name and contact details for each LCM are tied to the LCM's loyalty member identifier. These loyalty card programs are usually tied into the retail data management system, so that a LCM's loyalty card can be scanned at a point-of-sale terminal using a magnetic card reader or a universal product code (UPC) barcode scanner, during the checkout process, so that a LCM's purchases can be registered against the LCM's loyalty member identifier.
It is also well known in the art to provide discount coupons to retail customers, to encourage them to purchase specific goods. Discount coupons typically promote a specific product and provide a discount price or other introductory offer when presented with the product at the time of purchase at a retailer. Traditional coupons are therefore used at a retailer, to promote sales of retail products carried by the retailer.
It would be highly advantageous to provide a sales promotion mechanism to promote sales of services not usually carried by retailers. It would be further advantageous to provide a mechanism for generating targeted sales leads.